6 August 1969
(The Gazette, Cedar
Rapids , Iowa )
Source: Newspapers.com
The whole article:
“Under any other set of circumstances, Warren ‘Bud’
Barr would say lightning struck his soybean fields the evening of Sunday, July
13 [1969].
While he was doing chores the following morning, the Benton County
farmer noticed that a 15-foot circular area in his bean field had been charred
to the ground. No other part of the field was touched.
At breakfast his 15-year-old daughter, Pat, and her
cousin, Kathy Mahr, 19, gave him another explanation for the barren spot.
‘Kathy and I were about to go to bed at 11 Sunday
evening, when we looked out our west window and saw red-orange lights hovering
just a few hundred feet from the house,’ Pat recalled.
Black Object
The black metallic object was moving and vanished over
a neighbour’s field northwest of the Barr home. The object was about the same
size as the barren spot in the soybean field.
‘I know that it wasn’t a jet, a helicopter, or a small
plane,’ Pat said. ‘It was shaped like two saucers put together upside down.’
The Barr family doesn’t say that the object was from
another planet. But their beans haven’t had any trouble with armyworms either.
It could have been lightning, Bud Barr believes, but
he hasn’t tried to collect on his crop insurance. The family said the air was
quiet around 11 p.m., although it had rained earlier in the evening.
Lightning Effects
When lightning strikes, the center of a circular area
is usually barren, but the edges taper off, Vivian Jennings, Cedar Rapids area extension crops specialist,
said. In Barr’s field, the whole 15-foot area was barren, and other portions of
the field were not affected.
The family weren’t able to find any imprints in the
area, and they did not report the strange activities to authorities.
Several citizens reported what they believed to be an
unidentified flying object near the Cedar
Rapids municipal airport in June. The Cedar
Rapids municipal airport air traffic control tower has not had any
reports of unusual activity on June 13, although they usually ask that citizens
forward reports on to military authorities at Offutt air force base, Omaha , or University
of Colorado , Colorado
Springs.
No Life
Two space flights since then have eliminated the
theory that the object might have been sent from the moon or Mars. There isn’t
any life on Mars, you’ll recall.
‘But it could have been from Venus,’ Pat said.
‘Imagine what their scientists would say if they thought earth was a giant Iowa soybean field.’ Pat
is a senior at Benton Community high school.
The Barr farm is located approximately five miles
northwest of Vinton.”
The article contains a photo of Warren Barr’s soybean
field.
NOTE: NICAP.org and other credible UFO research
sources
report that Warren Barr’s farm was located just outside
Van
Horne (located just west of Cedar Rapids ). Van Horne is
located to the south west of Vinton.
located to the south west of Vinton.
Wikipedia article: “Van Horne , Iowa ”:
Related posts:
The 13 July 1969 Van Horne , Iowa , UFO landing
imprint
(CE2 case – soybean
crop)
(4.bp.blogspot.com/thebiggeststudy.blogspot.com
photo)